Read Read Read

Here is our new page to celebrate reading at Penns Primary School.

Phonics and Reading in EYFS & KS1

In Reception and KS1 phonics is taught daily as a whole class lesson but reinforced through all areas of the curriculum. We use Phonics Play for planning, assessment and resources, and this supports the expectations set out by the government. We also use interactive resources and video clips from Bug Club to promote the differing learning styles of our pupils. In Reception class the children learn the initial sounds through the use of Jolly Phonics stories, actions and songs.

We use a selection of different reading schemes to provide variety for the children. Some of these reading schemes include Big Cat Phonics, Oxford Reading Tree and Sunshine Spirals. Each child in Reception and Year 1 are given three reading books each week, which are suitable for their individual reading ability. To promote independence in Year 2 the children are supported to change their reading book when they have finished it. We ask parents to listen to their child read every night, where possible, or carry out activities shown to them during the reading workshops. These activities could include find missing words from the sentence, sequence the story or suggest a new ending. We also use these books in school to listen to each child read daily where possible.

As well as these reading books we encourage families to share the books from our online Bug Club library which provides hundreds of books including non-fiction books and plays. The books available on Bug Club deliver comprehension questions for the children to complete so that as teachers we can monitor how each individual child is managing with their reading at home.

Guided reading is carried out every day in key stage 1 and starts in January for Reception children. During these sessions the children are grouped by their ability and the teacher will listen to each group read once a week. The other groups will carry out a variety of other tasks to support their reading, such as independently reading books linked to their topic, completing reading journals or reading as a group to another adult.